1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to animal feed supplements, and in particular pertains to animal feed supplements made from seaweed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Seaweed has long served as a feed and feed supplement for domestic and wild animals. Some even graze on seaweed growing on rocky beaches and floating in the ocean water. There are numerous reports of animals such as cows and sheep preferring seaweed to other feed and flourishing when their feed was supplemented with it. Seaweeds such as Laminaria, Fucus, Ascophyllum and Alaria have been made into silage and have been dried and sold as a meal product to be mixed with other feedstuffs.
The value of seaweed is generally attributed to the fact that it is low in carbohydrate and protein, and rich in trace elements, B, D, E and other vitamins, fucoxanthin, and betacarotene and various growth hormones.
Previous seaweed products are not always uniformly effective because of varying content of the trace elements and vitamins and other compounds due to the time and location of harvest and the method of processing. Therefore, seaweed products have not always provided significant and reliable benefit to the animals fed the product. An object of the invention herein is to provide a reproducible method of producing a beneficial seaweed product.
Another of the advantages of the instant invention is to increase the "livability" of animals, including livestock and poultry, fed the product of the invention. "Livability" may be judged by determining the proportion of animals on a particular feed regimen or under particular conditions which are alive after a particular period of time. When animals such as poultry are grown for food production, there is generally a loss of a small but constant percentage of the animals prior to bringing the animals to the market which may be due to lack of nutrients, sickness, improper growing temperature, etc. This means than the feed eaten prior to death of the animals and the other costs expended on the animals that do not survive are wasted.
Another way to measure the value of a feed product is to determine whether the product decreases the amount of fat in animals fed the product, and results in an increased percent of protein. It is a further object of this invention to provide a feed product which results in a decreased fat content of animals fed the product.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method and product enabling inhibition of microbial pathogens. In particular, Salmonella typhimurium, a human pathogen, is widespread and a problem in poultry. Other Salmonella, for example S. enteritidis, are present in even greater numbers of flocks and are more detrimental to the poultry. Researchers have found that selected carbohydrates reduced attachment of S. typhimurium to ceca of 1-week old chicks but not 2-week old chicks. The most effective carbohydrates are N-acetyl-D-galactosamine, L-fucose, D-galactose, L+arabinose and D+mannose. See McHan et al., Avian Diseases 33:340, 1989. These carbohydrates are often expensive to purify and use for addition to food. Salmonella are also often found in cattle, swine and other livestock. It is thus another object of this invention to provide a less expensive product having the ability to reduce Salmonella attachment.
Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.